When it comes to managing my life, particularly if I’m way from my computer, if I can skip or speed up a step I’m more likely to stay on top of things. Google Calendar allows me to quickly add events through my phone through SMS.  I simply scroll to Google in my contact list and choose the option to send an SMS, type my appointment and hit send. Google texts back that the appointment was received. I also use it to send my self to-dos and notes that I don’t want to forget.

To set up the mobile option with Google Calendar:

1. Visit your Google Calendar online.
2. Click on the “Settings” option.
3. Click on “Mobile Set up”
4. Check to see if your Carrier is supported.
5. Enter your country and phone number, and then click “Send Verification Code”
6. You’ll receive a message back with a verification number. Enter that number in the “Verification Code” field on in the mobile settings on your calendar. (If you don’t receive the code, you can request it again through the Mobile Set up in the Settings.)
7. Click “Finish Set-up”.

To send a text of a new appointment:

1. Add Google Calendar’s SMS number to your contacts 48368
2. Send a text to the SMS number. Enter the appointment, date and time for example “Dinner 3/4 8pm” or “Soccer Saturday 10am”
3. Google Calendar will text back that it received the appointment.

Appointments I made through Text (SMS)

You can also have Google Calendar text your appointments to you. To receive the next item on your appointment schedule text “next” (without the quotes) to 48368.  Text “day” to get the day’s appointments or “nday” to get tomorrow’s schedule.

Do you lay wake at night wondering how much you should be saving in order to pay for your child’s college education? Well you’re in luck because over at SavingForCollege.com you can use it’s World’s Simplist College Cost Calculator to find out.

Simply enter your child’s age and you’ll get results. You can modify those results based on your expected annual college costs (default is $25,000), number of years your child has left in high school, what percentage of college costs you plan to pay, and how much you already have saved.

Visit the World’s Simplist College Cost Calculator for more information.

When I first got my Palm Treo, it was more of a novelty than anything. I paid the extra for Internet access and bought all sorts of programs to go with it, but at the time I didn’t really need it.

Today, I have a Blackberry (although I’m taking a close look at the Droid) that I can’t live without. If there is no wi-fi for my laptop, I can check email on my phone. If I need to do some quick cost comparison research, I can access information from the Internet on my phone. If I need to capture a thought, I can do it on my phone either through text, recording or a service like Jott that will send it to my email or calendar. And while much of its use is related to work, not all of it is. I listen to Pandora, read ebooks, and locate where my children have wandered off to.

Here are my top three reasons why everyone needs a Smartphone:

1) You can carry your life with you wherever you go. Contacts, notes, schedule, music and more. You don’t have to carry a bulky planner with erasable ink scribbles in it. Your phone can do it.

2) Get information about anything, anytime, anywhere. Like phone service, your Internet access can be limited but as many times as I’ve hit a dead spot in my phone service, I have very rarely not been able to get online to access important information from my phone. Need to know the traffic or weather where you’re heading? Want to compare prices on that great new doodad you’re planning to buy? Just last week I used my phone in Blockbuster to figure out what disk a specific episode of Stargate was on so my son could rent it. You can even get GPS.

3) Mange your life. Worried about missing an important call or email? Need to update your blog or Tweet with your colleagues? Nearly every great web-based productivity site has mobile options to make doing your work or managing your projects fast and easy while on the go.

Tired of wasting time sitting on hold? LucyPhone can help. In three easy steps you can contact the company you need to talk to and let LucyPhone sit on hold.

LucyPhone from Decogram Corporation on Vimeo.

1) Call the company through LucyPhone. It will call you first and then connect you to the company.

2) Use the company’s phone menu as you usually would to find the right department. If you’re put on hold, press **.

3) When an agent come on, LucyPhone calls you back immediately.

To learn more, or use the service, visit LucyPhone.com

In today’s challenging economy, any resource that can save you up to 50% is worth checking out. Most people think of gift cards as … well…gifts. But if you can get them from retailers you often shop from at a discounted price, they are a great resource for frugal shopping.

GiftCardGranny has partnered with resources such as eBay.com, Plastic Jungle, and Giftcards.com to bring you a one-stop resources for saving up to 50% off card value on gift cards. For example, today (5/10/10)  it has a $50 Wal-Mart card for only $34 (32% off). If you’re a regular Wal-Mart shopper, that’s a pretty good deal.

The list of participating retailers is extensive and includes Target, Barnes and Noble, Lowes, Kohls, Papa John’s and more.

Visit GiftCardGranny.com to learn more or get your discounted cards.

In my attempts to save money, meal planning and grocery shopping has become more complex. I’m clipping coupons, shopping multiple stores to get the best prices, and planning meals around what’s on sale. Being domestically and organizationally challenged, this new way of cooking and shopping has been difficult for me to manage.

But I’ve just come across a great new web and phone app that can make it easier. Ziplist offers lots of great features to create a shopping list and plan meals. The shopping list can be organized by aisle or store. It can be shared with other members of the family so that they can add items.

Not sure what to make for dinner? Ziplist has tons of recipes and with a single click all the ingredients can be added to your list. It will even show you items that you may already have at home so that they aren’t added to the list. And if you find a recipe on another website, you can save it to your Ziplist recipe box.

When you’re ready to shop, you can print out your list or access it by through your SmartPhone (iPhone app coming soon).

To learn more or to create your own list, visit Ziplist.

“If your food and wine adventures are more about the journey than the destination, Behind the Burner is the perfect place to explore your culinary desires.” From BehindTheBurner.

BehindtheBurner.com offers advice, tricks and secrets from the country’s top chefs. Learn about the chefs’ and restaurateurs, watch videos of chef’s cooking signature foods (I liked the chocolate french toast by Chef Peyard – Chocolate Epiphany), and read articles on everything from wine and travel, to how-to and health. Plus you can get great recipes.

If cooking (and eating) is your life, be sure to visit BehindtheBurner.com.

Several years ago my daughter was online searching the web for pictures of kittens. Apparently our kid-safe protocols weren’t set and she ended up finding sites that didn’t have kittens in the feline sense of the word. After getting over the shock and resetting the parent controls, we felt better, but still wondered what kinds of other searches would result in questionnable content. With all the tricks that some web people use to dupe search engines and secure protocols, we couldn’t trust that our kids were 100% safe.

Recently I discovered KidRex a kid-safe search engine. Using Google’s Custom Search and Safe Search, as well as checking sites against its own database of inappropriate sites, KidRex strives to offer kids a safe place to find information on the Internet. KidRex says that it filters to remove sexual content, but it doesn’t indicate if it also screens for violence, hate, etc. It admits that the engine isn’t 100% safe as some sites may slip through the filters. To that end it provides a way to submit information about inappropriate sites to its database for future exclusion.

The search page is much like Google’s in that there is very little but the search box on the page. With a crayon picture of a dinosaur its geared towards young children. Because of that and because filters aren’t 100%, parents will still want to screen what their children are finding online. But its a good starting point to keeping children safe from inappropriate material.

To learn more visit KidRex.com

If you’re on a budget, here’s a great freebie to help you track your spending and savings. The 2010 Savings Tracker will help you:

Easily input your monthly and yearly goals

Enter data from your receipts and let my preset formulas tally your spending, savings, actual-to-budget, and more

Track and manage your rebates (NEW!)

Determine how much you saved with coupons, store sales, and rebates

Have your monthly and year-to-date savings ratio update instantly

You do need to have a basic knowledge of Excel according to the creator of the savings tracker.  She offers both Excel 2007 and Excel 1997-2003 versions.

Download the 2010 Savings Tracker here!

Frugality has become a necessity in this economy. Thank goodness for the Internet where we can search for great deals and discounts. The only trouble is that it can be a long process to search all the sites for your local deals, unless you use a resources like ShopLocal.com. Shop Local posts the weekly ads for a variety of stores in your community.  You can search by store (JC Penny’s, OfficeMax, etc), by category (automotive, clothing, furniture, etc), or by brand (3M, Apple, Black and Decker, etc).

I lists only major cities, but you can input your city by choosing “Change Location” at the top of the page.  I was able to put in my closest city that had major retailers and was able to access stores as well as specific brands and items that were on special.

Visit ShopLocal.com to learn more.